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How to buy Barclays stock
Own Barclays stock in just a few minutes.
Barclays PLC is a banks—diversified business based in the US. Barclays shares (BCS) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Barclays employs 80,800 staff and has a market cap (total outstanding shares value) of USD$24.2 billion.
How to buy shares in Barclays
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Barclays Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: BCS. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Barclays reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Barclays, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Barclays. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- Barclays shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is Barclays stock a buy or sell?
- Barclays performance over time
- Can I short Barclays shares?
- Are Barclays shares over-valued?
- Barclays's financials
- How volatile are Barclays shares?
- Does Barclays pay a dividend?
- Have Barclays shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Barclays share price
Use our graph to track the performance of BCS stocks over time.Barclays shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-09-03.
| 52-week range | USD$3.41 - USD$10.22 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$5.6775 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$5.6059 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$7.1 |
| PE ratio | 16.3584 |
| Dividend yield | USD$0.43 (11.1%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$0.112 |
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Is it a good time to buy Barclays stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Barclays price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the last close of $N/A
| 1 week (2020-09-07) | N/A |
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| 1 month (2020-08-14) | N/A |
| 3 months (2020-06-14) | N/A |
| 6 months (2020-03-14) | N/A |
| 1 year (2019-09-14) | N/A |
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| 2 years (2018-09-14) | N/A |
| 3 years (2017-09-14) | N/A |
| 5 years (2015-09-14) | N/A |
Is Barclays under- or over-valued?
Valuing Barclays stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Barclays's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Barclays's P/E ratio
Barclays's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 16x. In other words, Barclays shares trade at around 16x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
Barclays's PEG ratio
Barclays's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.041. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Barclays's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Barclays financials
| Gross profit TTM | USD$19.7 billion |
|---|---|
| Return on assets TTM | 0.16% |
| Return on equity TTM | 2.96% |
| Profit margin | 11.05% |
| Book value | $19.564 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$24.2 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Barclays shares
There are currently 6.9 million Barclays shares held short by investors – that's known as Barclays's "short interest". This figure is 7.9% up from 6.4 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Barclays shares can be evaluated.
Barclays's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Barclays's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Barclays shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Barclays shares traded daily (recently around 3.4 million). Barclays's SIR currently stands at 2.04. In other words for every 100,000 Barclays shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2040 shares are currently held short.
However Barclays's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Barclays shares, or, against the total number of tradable Barclays shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Barclays's short interest could be expressed as 0% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Barclays shares in existence, roughly 0 shares are currently held short) or 0% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Barclays shares, roughly 0 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Barclays.
Find out more about how you can short Barclays stock.
Barclays share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 45.93% of net profits
Recently Barclays has paid out, on average, around 45.93% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 11.1% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Barclays shareholders could enjoy a 11.1% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Barclays's case, that would currently equate to about $0.43 per share.
While Barclays's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Barclays may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.
Barclays's most recent dividend payout was on 3 April 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 27 February 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Barclays's shares ever split?
Barclays's shares were split on a 74:73 basis on 19 February 2014. So if you had owned 73 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 74 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Barclays shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 1.4% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Barclays shares which in turn could have impacted Barclays's share price.
Barclays share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Barclays's shares have ranged in value from as little as $3.41 up to $10.22. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Barclays's is 1.1818. This would suggest that Barclays's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Barclays overview
Barclays PLC, through its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services in the United Kingdom, other European countries, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company operates through Barclays UK and Barclays International divisions. It offers financial services, such as retail banking, credit cards, wholesale banking, investment banking, wealth management, and investment management services. The company also engages in securities dealing activities; and issues credit cards. The company was formerly known as Barclays Bank Limited and changed its name to Barclays PLC in January 1985. Barclays PLC was founded in 1690 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.
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